The specialized gloves worn by firemen must exhibit a number of features in order to adequately perform in the hazardous environments encountered during use. First, the outermost shell or layer of the glove must be of a tough, abrasion-resistant, preferably heat-resistant material that shields the hand from heat and permits any gripping or grasping that might be required. Inside this outer layer a moisture barrier is also typically provided to prevent the firefighter's hands and any intervening layers within the glove from being soaked with water. Finally, it is ordinarily desirable to include an inner layer comprised of a soft material that is preferably both heat-resistant and provides a degree of padding for the glove. Similar specialized gloves are worn by a variety of users who need to provide multiple types of protection for their hands and who typically achieve such protection using a glove wherein at least one layer is a moisture barrier layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,756--Grilliot et al. discloses a firefighter's glove exhibiting the above-described sequence of layers. The moisture resistant layer is attached to a thermal barrier layer by stitching across the tip of the finger portion of the glove. A sealing piece covers the stitches used to attach these layers and provides sealing of the holes created in the moisture resistant layer by the stitches. The sealing piece, which is in the form of a tab, also provides a location where the outer layer is attached to the inner glove structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,257--Town also discloses a waterproof glove having an insulating layer, a waterproof layer and an outer layer. A fingertip tab is connected at one end to the inner layer, passes through and is stitched to the intermediate waterproof layer, and by extending beyond the intermediate waterproof layer provides a tab to which the outer layer may be stitched.
A fire retardant and heat insulating glove is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,918--Sturm. This patent discloses that the heat insulating inner layer is cemented by adhesive to a moisture resistant layer. A flexible reinforcement element is affixed to the outside of a moisture resistant layer that has finger portions somewhat longer than the fingers of the moisture resistant layer. Preferably the reinforcement layer is cemented to one face of the moisture resistant layer and its extensions beyond the fingertips provide locations for securing the outer layer to the rest of the glove structure.
Despite these advances in the art, it has been found that most of the types of glue used to affix various portions of such gloves together such as disclosed by Strum do not provide adequate structural integrity after repeated soakings and permit the layers to separate. Gloves assembled using adhesive over large portions of their surface areas are also inherently less compliant than other glove structures. Moreover, in the above-described patents to Grilliot et al. and Town, the tips of the moisture barrier layer and the insulating inner layer are sewn together such that the moisture barrier is punctured. Thus, there remains a need to provide a glove construction which avoids the use of glue to attach the layers of the glove together, but avoids any puncturing of the moisture barrier layer by the stitches which affix the layers of the glove together.